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Star of Oscar-nominated Free Solo admits he is more nervous of red carpet than 3000ft ropeless climb

One of the most epic and nail biting films among this year's Oscar nominations is the real life tale of a man who scaled a 900-metre (3000ft) vertical rock face - with no ropes.

Free Solo follows 33-year-old Alex Honnold as he attempts to conquer the first free solo climb of the famed El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park.

The film is up for Best Feature Documentary at the 91st Academy Awards.

And while heights may not faze him, Mr Honnold describes the idea of walking the Oscars' red carpet as "horrifying".

Alex Honnold speaking to ITV News in south London. Credit: ITV News

Speaking to ITV News at a climbing centre in south London, Mr Honnold said he had been taken aback by the reaction to the film.

"Certainly when I agreed to work on a film project with the directors (E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin) I didn't really think where it would all go," he said.

"The film really does capture the emotion pretty well, so each time I see it it takes me back to that place."

Mr Honnold spent years training for the climb, one which he would have done without the cameras rolling.

"It wasn't as if, by agreeing to do the film there's suddenly more pressure on me, basically I was going to go through the same process no matter what," he said.

Responding to criticism that he should not have been filmed doing something so dangerous, Mr Honnold said: "I didn't really think I was going to try and fail, and fall to my death.

"It always seemed like I would work on it until it felt comfortable and then I would do it, or it would never feel that comfortable and I wouldn't do it. But I didn't really think I was going to fall."

Now Mr Honnold is facing his next challenge, perhaps his toughest yet.

"I've spent hundreds of days up the side of cliffs. I've only walked a red carpet once or twice and it was it was only for brief periods and it was all sort of horrifying."